One Hour ! SEQUEL UP !
by xhesaidshesaidx
Summary: It was truly amazing how you could pack pedaling, arguing, confessions, important questions and answers, explanations, jumping into a completely unsanitary and grody lake, tredding water, and lots of kissing into just one little hour. AU Troypay Oneshot.


**Jeeberzz!! I haven't done a oneshot or updated anything Troypay related in a while huh? I miss Troypayyy D: So I decided to try and make up part of my lack of Troypay writing with this oneshot. Hope you guys enjoy it. x3**

* * *

**One Hour**

**F**or me, there are several definitions of the word strange. The first kind of strange, is when something's eerie- a little bit unusual. Different. Awkward. Kind of like my guy friend Chad... he's strange, in a way that means that he's not really all there. He seems sort of...off. Some part of him is obviously off somewhere in space. You can't really ever tell what's going on with him. Maybe that's just because he's a little on the...oh how do I say this nicely...

stupid side.

Or maybe it's because he's just a little more complex then everyone makes him out to be.

Pfft.

Nahh.

Definitley the first one.

The second kind of strange is when you're looking at one of those weird optical illusion things that your high on crack art teacher is shoving in your face; when there's two pictures in one that are definitley there but you can't quite make out how they're there, why they're there, how they got there, or why sometimes they seem to be in motion. This kind of strange makes you look twice and kind of tilt your head thoughtfully to the side and go "_wait...what_?" Like that one optical illusion I saw this one time with a whole bunch of hands shaped into the form of a face.

Yeah...don't ask.

The third kind of strange I say is when something happens that you kind of sort of or really least expect. The kind of strange that makes you think back on that experience and think "What the hell just happend?" or "Why the hell did that just happen?"

And I'm sure there are other more in-depth, specific definitions of the word "strange" with better examples, but I really don't feel like getting into that.

Well, I had the strangest dream last night. No, I didn't have a dream about stupid Chad. And I didn't have a dream about my obviously drug addicted art teacher Ms. Michaelis and her optical illusions. I had a "Why the hell am I dreaming about that?" kind of dream. Involving Troy, my not-really-but-somehow-sort-of-just-a-little-bit-but-for-some-reason-I-always-get-stuck-hanging-with-him-friend-yet-kind-of-sort-of-but-not-exactly-_crush_.

And no, that was not supposed to be secretly implied as my friend with benefits. So please don't make that you're translation. If you want the even longer version of what I just described him as, he's just one of the guys in the group of six I run around with- my brother Ryan (the feminine), our good friends Gabriella (the innocent), Taylor (the brainiac), Chad (the...well, you know), Troy (the smart ass) and me, Sharpay Evans, the I'm-the-only-one-whose-last-name-deserves-to-be-mentioned. I guess you could say we're kind of like the group of friends everyone wishes they could have or if they do have they should feel lucky to have. With three girls and three boys- each one dating another that are pretty close-ish and help each other cheat on tests and copy each other's homework. (well, four out of six of us do. You can count Taylor and Gabriella out of that one, and count Troy and yours truly out of the whole dating someone in the group part..._of course_.)

You see, Ryan is dating Gabriella. (Which I'm sure you already figured.) And Taylor and Chad fight like an old married couple. (I don't know if I should say they're boyfriend and girlfriend or not. Because honestly right now, I couldn't even tell you the answer if I wanted. They've got this weird on again off again daily shit that goes on between them. Last I heard, which was yesterday, they were fine. But today's a new day. So who knows but them?)

And then there's Troy and me. Troy and I. I and Troy. Whatever. I always get stuck alone with him. If the 6 amigos make plans, fifty percent of the time it ends up as just me and him as in everyone else cancels out, and I only sort of can possibly think of why. They want us to be alone together. How do I know this? Because the other day Gabriella told me I should date him. Okay, not just the other day. All too freakin' often. We're talking every week, at least twice a week here, but I don't really know why they say that, considering how rude he is to me.

It's not that I really mind though or anything that people tell me to hook up with him. I mean... there's no denying the boy's got looks. But his personality sucks total dick..towards me anyways. Like just the other day...

**_Flashback_**

_I stepped out of the dressing room feeling hot and confident in my lavender, knee length dress. I know what you're thinking- Sharpay Evans, lavender? _Not_ hot pink? Hol-eey Shiznits! =o I actually surprised myself too, as I'd stepped into that store ready to take on whatever hot pink dress was thrown my way, but the second I saw the lavender one hanging on that hook practically glowing, I knew it was the one._

_But apparently, that asshole disagreed._

_"How does it look?" I asked my friends as I examined myself in the mirror. My GIRL friends. Meaning, NOT Troy, knowing I looked fabulous anyway but also knowing Taylor and Gabi would compliment my ravishing good looks regardless of that, and who doesn't want free compliments?_

_"Why does it matter? It's not like _you_ have a date." Troy decided to comment, proving how boring and pointless he thought the potential most important moment of my life was, with an overly emphasized and obviously fake yawn._

_Pfft._

_Who asked him anyway?!_

_I narrowed my chocolate orbs at him._

_"Neither do you," I shot back pointedly and snappily, bringing out my inner Ice Queen._

_"Which is why you don't see me shopping for a tux!"_

_Yes, you heard correclty, tux. As in, the six of us were currently shopping for proper prom attire. Actually, Ryan and Chad had ditched Troy in the food court for some disgusting hot dog eating contest, so the pathetic shaggy haired jerk had no choice but to puppy dog after us girls while we went on to examine dresses, trying our best to pretend he wasn't there._

_"Well maybe you should and leave us alone!" I oh so kindly suggested in regards to his second pointless comment._

_"And maybe you should quit pretending some Prince Charming or whoever is gonna go out of their way to ask you to prom." Smart-ass shot back at me. Gabi and Taylor just stood nearby, watching us, used to our arguements by now but probably wishing they would stop once and for all._

_"Bite me, Bolton." This is what I usually said when I couldn't think of a proper comeback. A few guys had in fact asked me to the prom, but none that I was interested in the least. But why take the time to explain that to Troy?_

_"When and where?" he smirked. Damn him and his sexy smirk._

_"Wherever I say so," I rolled my eyes._

_"Suckish comeback number two."_

_I shook my head, deciding to ignore him. "So how do I look GIRLS?" I asked Gabi and Tay, emphasizing the word girls, trying to get him to take a hint... and a hike._

_"You look great!" Gabriella said, smiling kindly at me with her perfect white set of teeth, and Taylor nodded in agreement._

_"Terrible. Purple is so not your color." Troy told me, apparently not taking my very obvious hint as he crossed his muscular arms together and leaned against a dressing room door, badly immitating some kind of criticizing bitch valley girl that knew oh so much about fashion._

_"First of all, it's lavender. Second, you _wish _you looked like me."_

_"Yes, because there is absolutely nothing I want more in life than to look like some bleach blonde bimbo in a PURPLE dress with no prom date."_

_It's not like his words stung or anything exactly, no, you can't hurt me no matter how hard you tried. Especially not Troy, since this is practically his daily behavior towards me, so I'm used to it. But just because I'm used to it doesn't mean I like tolerating it, I'm actually very sick of it._

_"I hate you." I told him, glaring hard at his cute face as best I could. He smirked again, making me want nothing more than to slap him._

_"No, you don't," he responded, and god damnit he was right, so I didn't reply to that._

**_End of Flashback._**

I really don't hate him. I don't even dislike him that much...sometimes. Because he does have his moments. He can be sweet or at least semi sweet on really good days, which makes me like him a lot, but then he turns right back into his ol' self again the next day or sometimes just two hours later. Like this one time we got stuck alone at the bowling alley together- because Gabriella and Taylor had to "study", Chad got "food poisoning", and Ryan...didn't even attempt an excuse.

It was Troy's turn up, so while he was up there concentrating on the lane, I was sitting all by my lonesome on the off-white hard plastic seat, when some husky, overly muscular (obviously on steroids) college guy comes up to me and tells me he's been watching me for a few minutes (stalker) and starts using some very colorful and overly discriptive words to describe what I'm apparently going to do with him tonight...and we're talking the _whole_ nine yards. Or in other words, a homerun hit straight out of the ballpark from America all the way to Egypt.

That's when Troy bowls a strike, and turns around in victory mode, starts to grin and say "Sharpay did you see that!?", but his face contorts into a scowl when he sees me bitching out husky boy over there whose finally done explaining to me his graphic fantasy.

"What's the problem here?" He asks attentively, walking up to us. He glances first at husky and then me, because there's obviously a problem.

"No problem at all," husky tells him stupidly, but Troy knows better, so he leaps into this rant about how he better "stay the fuck away from me" and how "I'm obviously not interested" and that "If he touches me he will rip him apart limb from limb with his two bare hands."

That's when husky, apparently too drunk to notice that he's a lot bigger than Troy and can probably squash him like a bug without much effort, backs slowly away and says "Hey sorry man, I didn't know she was your girlfriend."

"He's not my-" I start to clarify, but get cut off by Troy before I can get to the word "boyfriend".

"Girlfriend. That's right, she's _my_ girlfriend, so you better get the hell out of here!" he says, glancing quickly at me to see my reaction, which is really nothing but pure confusion, and he even goes as far as to drape his arm across my shoulders and kiss my temple to prove his point, (which makes me inwardly squeal..which I'd never admit), before glaring back at husky, whose eyes widen as he backs slowly away until he's out of our sight for good.

"What the heck was that?" I ask Troy, pushing him away from me, as his arm is still across my shoulders and is a little to heavy for me to handle at this point.

"What?" he asks me innocently.

"_She's my girlfriend_!" I mock his previous words, refreshing his memory and trying hard not to show that I secretly liked that he just pretended to be my boyfriend for a whole thirty seconds. But he just looked at me with a smile and told me that he's "just trying to protect me from jerks like that" before changing the subject and telling me that it's my turn to bowl.

So I pick up my bowling ball, shaking off the confusion since _he's_ usually the one that's a jerk to me (but not in a perverted way) and continue on with the game.

See? He's bi-polar I tell you. One minute he's super nice, and the next it's like he's trying to start World War III with me. So sometimes I like him and the next I think all he really needs is a good slap in the face from myself.

Anyway, I had the strangest dream about him last night...not strange, exactly. Just weird because I never dream about him, because according to the people over at Disney, "a dream is a wish your heart makes," and I wish nothing of him except for him to be nice to me at _all _times, which will probably never happen anyway.

In my dream, _he_ asked me to prom, in the cutest way to. He took me out on this little yellow kayak, and was being his usual jerk self, but then something...I don't know what because I don't really remember all of it...but something happened and he suddenly turned all nice like he for some reason does sometimes (BI-POLAR BI-POLAR BI-FRIGGIN-POLAR!) and he leaned over, _kissed_ me, and asked me to prom. It was every girl's dream cheesy fairytale moment, and that's just the _short_ version.

But what makes this whole dream experience especially strange, is that him, Gabi, Taylor, Ryan, Chad, and myself made plans just two days ago to go out to this lake today since it's always nice and warm in and around Albuquerque, and rent kayaks...

**|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|**

"What do you _mean_ your not going!?" I screamed at my twin, who was now cowering behind a couch cushion.

"Exactly that," he responded nervously. "I'm sorry Shar, but dad asked me to help him out with a few renovations down at the club today."

He was talking about Lava Springs, the country club that my family owns that our father has been working on remodeling for at least half a year already.

"Great, just great! First Taylor pulls out, saying that she and Chad had another fight and she didn't want to see his face. Then Chad pulls out, saying that hes 'too depressed over Taylor' to do anything today, then Gabi bails on us, saying she has some kind of stomach bug and her mom wants her in bed all day, and now my own flesh and blood is gonna ditch me!?" I scream in disbelief and fury.

Why does this always happen to me? Why is everyone always canceling plans?

"It's okay, Shar. Troy's still going, right?"

Oh yeah, _Troy_. That's why. Everyone wants me to be alone with Troy. Well, you know what? I'm not in the mood for any kind of quality time with just _Troy_ today. I shook my head at Ryan.

"Forget it, what's the point? I'm not going."

"What? No, you have to go!" Ryan demanded. I shot him a quizzical look.

"Why should_ I_ go if _you_ don't have to?" I snapped.

"Because I actually have a good reason, you don't!"

"Yeah, I do. I don't want to be alone with Troy, I'd say that's a pretty damn good reason, Ryan!" I said, narrowing my eyes into slits.

"You've been alone with him before, why do you suddenly refuse now?"

"Maybe because I'm sick of you guys cancelling all our plans 24/7!" I shouted. "God, Ryan. Why do you care anyway if I go or not?! It's seriously like you and Gabriella and Taylor and Chad just set this whole thing up on purpose! Why do you guys all want me and Troy together so bad?" I challenged him. Point made enough?

"That's not it, Shar," Ryan tried lamely, "I just don't think you should miss out because it didn't work out for some of us."

"Miss out on what? A day full of Bolton being an asshole to me again?" I scoffed, "No _thank _you!"

"No its just...I don't think...I mean... argh whatever Shar, just go with him!"

But I was already halfway out of the room. "No!" I screamed, stomping up the stairs to go pout in my bedroom.

"I'm not going, and that's final!"

**|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|**

I'm going. Can you freakin' believe it? I'm actually going. I can't believe it, and I don't know why I'm going either. Maybe it's because Troy showed up half an hour later at my house, and Ryan allowed him to go up to my room to come get me as he was leaving with our dad to the club in just a few minutes. Troy came into my room looking adorable in his cargo shorts and baby blue t-shirt from American Eagle that made his gorgeous eyes look even brighter, and when he looked at me, smiled and asked when we were leaving, while captivating me with his cerulean pools, I knew I just couldn't tell him I wasn't going.

"Um...give me a few minutes," I said, wanting to go freshen up a little bit first, though I knew nothing about me needed serious fixing.

"Hurry up." He said, the smile dropping from his face as he turned all bi-polar again.

"I'll take however long I want, Bolton." I muttered, rolling off my bed and walking over to my vanity.

"Just make sure it's in my life time, Evans." Troy said, rolling his eyes. Gosh, he's so much cuter when he's smiling and not rolling them. I saw him watching me out of the corner of my eye as I picked up my hairbrush and began moving it in long strokes through my silky blonde waves.

"Is there a reason you're still here?" I asked, turning around to face him, surprised to see him smiling again, but it quickly left his face the second he saw me turn around.

"I'm waiting for you to hurry up," he said with a casual shrug.

"Well could you wait somewhere else?"

"Where?" he asked.

"Downstairs. Upstairs. In hell, go wherever you want. Just get out of my doorway." I snapped, not knowing why I seemed to be the mean one today but not really caring since he really did deserve it because of his past behavior towards me. And yes, upstairs. My house has three floors not counting the basement level.

"Fine, we'll do things your way princess." He snapped back. "I'll be in the car." Troy said with another freaking eye roll, disappearing from the doorway.

**|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|**

I met him in his dumb beat up white truck five minutes later.

"It's about time," he said with an obviously forced yawn. "I was about to drive off without you."

"Well maybe you should've." I said, climbing into the passenger's seat and slamming the door shut. "And how is five minutes a long time?" Geeze, how impatient could a person _get_?

"When it's _you_ I'm waiting for, it feels like a life time," he told me rudely.

"Was that supposed to be an insult?"

"That depends. Did you take it as one?"

"Not at all, jerk." I said, buckling my seatbelt.

"Then it wasn't, princess."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I asked him as he pulled out of the driveway.

"For starters, you're wearing a dress."

I glanced down at my white summer dress before looking blankly back up at him. "So?"

"We're going kayaking!" Troy exclaimed, to which I repeated "SO? It's not like I'm getting in the water!"

"Yeah, unless I throw you in," he smirked mischeviously. Oh god...

"You wouldn't." I glared hard at the side of his face, since his eyes were now focused on the road.

"Oh believe me, I would," he replied.

"I swear to god Troy Bolton, if you do so much as splash me, I promise you I will take my father's private jet to Hawaii and come back with enough jellyfish to fill an aquarium tank and I will go out of my way to make sure they sting your ass to death."

"Not unless I let them sting you first."

"Good luck with that, jerk." I said, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms over my chest. I stared out the window, not bearing to look at him any longer.

"Thanks for the luck, princess."

**|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|**

When we got to the loading dock of the boat rental place, there was a small line of people that we had to wait behind. I looked around us to see different kinds of boats on either sick of the dock- kayaks and pedal boats on one side of one, two, and four person seating, and bumper boats on the other side of only one person seating.

"Hey, wanna try a pedal boat instead?" Troy suddenly asked me, his breath warm in my ear as he was standing directly behind me. I shrugged, wondering yet not really caring that he changed his mind from kayaks to pedal boats.

"Whatever," I answered, my arms crossed, the sun beating down on my already sun kissed hair and tanned limbs.

"Great." He said, I could hear the smile in his voice, and before either of us knew it, we were next in line.

"What'll it be?" the guy with curly hair and a lot of facial acne, who had on a tacky sticker nametag that read "Hello! My name is Franky" and looked about twenty asked us. I was busy studying the prices for the different boat rentals on the large sign taped to Franky's wooden booth, so I let Troy answer for us.

"We'll take a single pedal boat," Troy said, and I turned around and stared at him, eyebrows raised.

"There's two of us."

"That's what a single pedal boat is for, Sharpay." He told me, "There's two seats in a single and four in a double."

I shrugged, feeling stupid. "Oh," I said, turning back around, trying to shake off the feeling.

"For one hour or two?" Franky asked us, and I couldn't imagine spending either amount of time out in the lake alone with Troy, who was sure to try and rip my conscience apart out there. Great. Why am I doing this again?

"Just one," I quickly told Franky before my companion could answer. But I'm sure he would've said one hour anyway if I hadn't. Who could spend two hours pedaling anyways?

"Okay, that'll be twenty dollars. And I'm going to have you fill out this quick form right here," Franky said, sliding a paper form across the booth to us along with a pen. Troy grabbed it before I could, and tossed him a twenty dollar bill. It took him about two minutes to fill out the short form while I, along with the people in line behind us, waited patiently for him to finish up.

"Alright," Franky said with a bright and cheery smile. "You guys can go pick out your life jackets over there now while I get your boat set up."

"Life jacket?" I whispered to Troy as I followed him to the bin full of life coats after we thanked Franky. "Ew, why?" I complained.

"So you don't fall in and drown, that's what life jackets are for," he said with a hint of "wow you're stupid" in his voice.

"I don't want to wear one," I protested.

"You have to, Sharpay." He said, reaching in and pulling out two bright orange life vests, one of which he held out to me. I reached for it reluctantly and slowly put it on, feeling the gross feeling of the public the moment it touched my neck. Troy looked at me and smriked.

"What now?" I asked with a sigh, growing tired of his damn smirk that addmitedly made him look hot but that I still hated anyways because it just showed how cool he thought he was.

"You look like a little kid in that," he told me, buckling his own life coat.

"Well you don't look so grown up either." I snapped, walking away from him and over to Franky who was waving us over to a blue-green pedal boat, Troy following behind insuit.

"Okay guys, before you go off on your own, I have a couple of rules you need to folllow." Our instructor said as he held the boat close to the dock so it wouldn't float away as we stepped inside. I subconsciously grabbed ahold of Troy's hand to help balance myself as I stepped carefully in, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he placed his other hand gently on my waist and helped guide me in.

"Don't go past this bridge," Franky said, starting his set of rules and pointing to the bridge almost directly behind us. I had to crane my neck to see. "And don't go past the fourth bridge down that way, either," he said, gesturing forward. "That should give you plenty of room to go around."

"Do not stand up in the boat at any time, don't rock the boat, and try not to bump into other boats or the bridge posts while you're out there," Franky continued as Troy climbed into the boat beside me- with much more ease than I'd had.

"Oh, and don't try to take the boat home, either." Franky grinned at us with a wink. Wait a minute...a wink?

"Okay, we won't, thanks." Troy said, nodding up at him.

"Alright, what time is it now?" The instructor asked us. Troy glanced at his watch.

"Just a little after two thirty."

"Okay," Franky nodded, "remember to be back by three thirty then."

"We will." Troy said, just as Franky pushed us away from the dock so we were officially on our own. We pedaled in silence for a couple of minutes.

"He seemed nice." I commented, referring to Franky and not knowing what else to say to rid the strange as in eerie-stupid-Chad silence.

"Nice?" Troy laughed. "Sure, if I didn't know any better I'd say he was flirting with you."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him, dumbfounded. Well...there was the wink. But that didn't necissarily mean he was flirting with anyone.

"Didn't you see the way he looked at you?"

I shook my head. He scoffed.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"Why does it matter anyway?" I snapped. "What's wrong with you, Troy?"

"Nothing's wrong with me," he said cooly, glancing backwards as if trying to decide if we were far enough away from the dock.

"But, I'm taking this thing off." he said, stopping pedaling for a moment (which caused me to stop also) and unbuckling his life jacket which he then slid off and stuffed at the bottom of the boat.

"Hey, you need that Troy." I said in a mocking voice, repeating what he'd said to me earlier. "_So you don't fall in and drown_."

"I wouldn't drown." He said, shaking his head. "I'm a great swimmer."

"Cocky much?" I raised an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes and smiled.

"I deserve to be."

"Yeah, okay." I said, shaking my head in disbelief. "Well, if you get to take yours off then I do too."

"No, because _you _might actually drown." He said, apparently deciding that was the end of it, because he started pedaling forward again. But I was not about to let him get away with that, so I placed my feet on my pedals on my side of the boat and pedaled backwards, so we weren't moving anywhere with both of us pedaling in different directions.

"What are you doing?" Troy sighed, "You're supposed to pedal forward, Sharpay."

"I know, I'm not stupid!" I snapped at him, causing him to stare at me, apparently surprised at my sudden change in tone.

"I'm taking off my life vest." I told him in a more subtle tone, but he quickly shook his head in protest, his brown hair falling over his eyes.

"No," he said, having seemed to make up his mind.

"You don't tell me what to do," I said. "I can swim just fine, Troy, and who says I'm even going to fall in?"

"With how clumsy you are, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that you might." He responded, glaring at me. "Leave the life jacket on," he said sternly.

"No!" I challenged him, knowing fully well I sounded like a little bratty girl that was arguing with her dad or something, but not caring in the slightest. Since when was he my boss?

"What do you mean no?" He asked.

"Exactly that," I said and began to unbuckle the stupid life coat. He watched me in obvious dissapproval, but didn't say anything.

"I don't know why you treat me like I'm so helpless, Troy." I huffed, sliding the jacket off and flinging it also to the bottom of the boat where his was. His eyes lingered on it for a moment before he looked back at me.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Evans," he told me and started to pedal forward again. That seemed weird though, considering I'd been kind of hanging around in the same group as him since elementary school and what was left to know about him? But I decided to ignore that and go along with what he said.

"Exactly. Another one of them being why you're such a jerk to me all the time." I snapped. He didn't respond, but I wasn't going to let this go. I've been dealing with his shit for way too long now.

"Seriously, why do you hate me so much?"

He stopped pedaling then, abrubtly, and shot me possibly the meanest look I'd ever recieved from anyone in my life, but I didn't let it fase me.

"I don't hate you. Why would you think I hate you? What the hell, Sharpay?"

And that's when I really felt the anger boiling deep within me. "How can you seriously ask me why I think that? Maybe it's because you always pick on me!" I screamed.

He rolled his eyes again, but his hardened look softened a little. Why was that eye rolling thing such a freaking habit of his?

"I do not. Quit acting like a little kid."

"You call me names like everyday, but you're not like that with Gabi and Taylor, and I'm not saying I want you to be, I'd just wish if you treated me a little like you treat them."

"And how do I treat them?"

"Nicely!" I shouted furiously.

"So I'm basically an asshole that can't treat a girl right?" Troy asked me.

"No," I shook my head quickly. "You're basically an asshole that can't treat_ me_ right!"

"I'm nice to you, Sharpay." He said, apparently refusing to believe how heinous I thought he was.

"Hardly."

"When am I an "asshole" to you?"

"Everyday that ends with a Y!"

I saw his expression change into a thoughtful one, and he was silent for a few seconds, before slowly saying "...every day of the week ends with a Y."

"EXACTLY!" I shreiked.

"Give me a break!" He said, starting up his pedaling again. I just sat there, wanting to scream at him some more, only if I did it would make me seem like the complete bitch in this situation since all he said was "give me a break", which doesn't give me much room for backfire.

We pedalled along the lake for a while longer- ten minutes tops, before coming to another stop directly underneath the third bridge.

"Here," Troy suddenly said flatly, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out. I couldn't tell what it was since he had it fisted tightly in his hand, so it must've been something pretty small in size, but then he dropped the thing- whatever it was, ungracefully into my lap.

"What's this?" I asked in confusion, staring at the medium length silver chain.

"Well, I don't know what you wanna call it, but in my world we call it a necklace," he told me in a "duh" tone.

"I know what a necklace is, Bolton." I snapped. "Why are you giving it to me?"

Never had he ever once given me a present of any kind...well, sometimes on my birthday, but even that was pretty rare. So why now, when he didn't even have a reason to?

I lifted the chain from my lap, gazing at the cute little heart pendant that hung from it. Troy sighed.

"Can I ask you a question, Sharpay?"

"No." I instantly answered, shooting him a sure look.

He blinked. "Why not?"

"You didn't answer either of mine."

"Which are?..."

"The first one was, why are you so mean to me? And the second- why are you giving me this?"

"You'll find out the answer to both of those if you just let me ask mine."

"Fine." I huffed, not in the mood for his little mind games. That's when he smiled at me. A genuine smile. Not that stupid sexy smirk that I hate so much. Did I mention he's BI POLAR?!!

"Will you go to prom with me?"

_WHAT?_

Hold. The. Fucking. Phone.

**REWIND**:

"Will you go to prom with me?"

Did he SERIOUSLY just ask me that?!!?!?!!!

"What?!"

Was this my literal "dream come true?"

"...Should I repeat the question?"

I stared at him for a while. Eyes wide, mouth ajar. What is _wrong_ with him?!

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" I demanded.

"Huh?" He asked stupidly, as if he had no idea in the whole wide world as to why on earth I would possibly think that.

"What kind of a lowlife _are_ you?" I hissed, clutching the necklace tightly in my hand. Oh how badly I wanted to chuck it at either him or far along the lake right now.

"I..don't really know how to respond to that," he said with a nervous light chuckle. How could he be _chuckling_ at a time like this?!

Oh my god.

"You're either a bigger asshole than I thought to begin with, or you're just a bi-polar freak, Bolton." I snarled at him. "So which one are you? Take your pick, I don't really care which one we go with!"

"Well," he sighed, "I'd rather be a freak than an asshole."

"Well too bad for you but right now I'd say you're both!"

"Look, Sharpay, just...let me explain."

"That might be nice!" I shouted, having a violent urge to shake him by the shoulders to force the explanation out of him.

"Well, you know how you think I'm mean to you or whatever?"

I continued to stare at him but didn't say anything. _No shit Sherlock_.

"It's kind of..well...okay, not kind of. It's because I..." he shifted awkwardly in his seat, rubbing the back of his neck. Something I'd noticed a while ago he often did when he was nervous. "I like you, okay?"

_What? What?_ Triple **WHAT?!**

**REWIND (again):**

"I like you, okay?"

What in the name of holy Moses?!

Isn't the whole "teasing someone because you like them" thing a little bit, oh I don't know...FIRST GRADE?

"You have a funny way of showing it."

"I'm sorry."

That's all he had to say? "I'm sorry?"

"That's all you have to say?"

"What else should I say?"

"Let me get this straight," I said, twirling a strand of my hair in thought, my heart pounding a thousand times a millisecond at his news. There was no way he "liked me." Not saying that because of my looks or anything, I mean, look at me. I'm saying that because of how he'd gone several years in a row being a total jerk to me.

"You treat me like shit for several years to no end, starting back in the second grade when you flung pudding at me, all the way up to this dumb boating trip, only to tell me that it's because you've _liked_ me all these years?!!!?"

"Pretty much," he mumbled. I scoffed at him.

"What the hell, Troy?"

Then again...I've kind of liked him all along too. But only sometimes. It's usually just physical attraction, but let's just say that on those occasions where he has his sweet moments like two weeks ago at the bowling alley, all I really want to do is smother him in kisses.

"I didn't want you to know the truth."

I didn't want him to know my feelings either...if you could even call them feelings. I'm still not sure if I do.

"So how come you're telling me now?"

Should I tell _him_ now?

"Because our senior prom is coming up, and I didn't want to finish high school never getting my chance...I've wanted to ask you for a while, but I've just recently decided to."

Was he seriously expecting me to buy this? Because if he did...he was kind of getting lucky, 'cause I mean...if what he just said was true...then this just might be one of those moments where I want to smother him in kisses.

But wait a minute...

"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow. "And what happened to "_maybe you should quit pretending some Prince Charming or whoever is gonna go out of their way to ask you to prom!?_" I recited his past words to me from a week ago.

"I didn't mean that. I don't mean anything bad I've ever said to you. I'm really sorry, Shar."

Okay, now this is officially getting weird. He never calls me Shar. Never. But now, when he did say it...he made my nickname sound so adorable and not like I was named after a dog.

"And you actually mean this? All of this? Or are you just going to scream SIKE at me in a moment?" I asked him, feeling as though my heart would burst out of my chest.

"Yes to the first question, no to the last one. I swear, really. But I understand if you don't believe me. But I wish you would. I'll do whatever it takes for you to believe me. I just really thought you should finally know how I feel."

"Whatever it takes?" I asked with a mischevious gleam in my eye. He sighed and nodded, probably having some premonition as to what was coming.

"Jump in the lake."

"Excuse me?"

"Do it."

He gulped and took his not waterproof watch off, laid it down on the seat next to him, and stood slowly, breaking one of Franky's rules, and I wondered if he was really going to do it. And when he turned and took one step over the edge of the small pedal boat, I could tell he was not fooling around and he really was going to do it..and with no life jacket on too. My eyes widened in shock.

"What the hell? Are you _crazy_!?" I shreiked, reaching across the boat to him. I made a frantic grab for his hand and attempted to pull him back into the boat, but it was too late. He'd already jumped, and since my hand was locked on his, it caused him to pull me in with him.

When I hit the water, all I could think about was how freezing cold and disgusting and green it was. I mean, hello? There was a sewage drain twenty feet away! And we were right under a bridge, so it made everything dark.

I swam quickly to the top, arms and legs thrasing, hair matted to my head. _Ick._

"Troy!?" I screamed in panic, frantically twisting my head from side to side. The good news? The pedal boat was floating less than ten feet away from me. The bad news? Troy wasn't. I had no idea where he was.

But then suddenly, from somewhere close behind me, I heard splashing water and a manly cough, and before I could even turn around in that direction, I felt something slide across my waist.

"AHH!!!" I screamed, my first thought of the thing holding my waist being a snake, and my first instinct being to scream. I twisted around, frantically trying to get it to let go, but that's when my head banged hard against none other than Troy's head.

"Ow!" we exclaimed at the same time, rubbing our foreheads with one of our hands each.

"You scared me!" I told him, meaning that he scared me in two ways. One, making me think he was a snake. And two, making me think for a moment that he was gone.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, smiling at me. And then, "why did you grab me instead of letting me jump?"

"I didn't actually think you would!" I said. "You're such an idiot, Bolton. I can't believe you would actually do that." But I was smiling, for some reason, with tears in my eyes. Whoa wait a minute? Tears? Where did those come from? Well, my eyes obviously. But why? Relief? Yeah, that had to be it. My heart was still thudding vigorously, after all.

"Well? I told you I'd do anything." He said, grinning back at me, and, keeping a firm grip around my waist, we swam over to the boat together, and he helped me climb in before hoisting himself over. I shivered, still feeling cold and icky from the water even with the New Mexican heat in the air.

"I just can't believe you tried to stop me." he said, shaking his head which caused little water sprinkles to fly in every direction.

"I wouldn't of actually made you jump Troy, jeeze." I said. "That's why I tried to stop you."

"And look what that resulted in." He laughed. "I'm sorry I pulled you in."

"It's okay, and you can stop with all the apologizing now. I'm sorry for making you think I'd actually make you do what you just did."

"It's fine, I'm just a little wet is all. No harm done." He said and then apparently realizing something, frowned.

"Wait where's the necklace? It didn't fall in too did it?!" He asked worriedly, and my eyes widened in fear, but I let out a loud sigh of relief when I looked down and saw that luckily and thank god the necklace had remained on my seat. I picked it up.

"It's right here," I said, the reflief and happiness clear in my voice, and he reflected what was probably my look of relief on his face.

"Great. Let me see it," he said, holding his arm out to me. I handed him the necklace.

"Turn around," he instructed, and I did as he told and he put the piece of jewelry on me. I turned back around and smiled at him. Forgetting how soaked I was with lake water and slime.

"I really love this Troy, thanks a lot." I said, giving the heart pendant a tight squeeze. He nodded and pulled me close to him.

"So, I jumped in a lake for you, you believe that what I've been saying in the last few minutes is true, right?"

I smiled up at him, joy filling my soul, and I really don't care how insanely cheesy that sounds. Yes, I did believe him. And I did forgive him, for everything. This whole time, I've only sort of liked him. But now...I don't know...I really like him. And it's not just because he jumped in a dirty lake for me. It's not because he bought me jewelry either. It's because now I know that he's liked me all along, and didn't mean a smidegeon of any of the insults he'd ever thrown my way. I never thought before that his words used to hurt me all that much, they'd always just kind of pissed me off without much meaning. But now, knowing that he really didn't think of me in a totally horrible or disgusting way, for some reason I found that newfound discovery to be suddenly...relieving and refreshing. It felt good. No, great to know that he actually didn't think that for instance, "purple was not my color" or that I was "ugly" or "bitchy" or any of the things he'd ever said about me in the past.

"Yeah, I believe you." I told him.

"And will you be my date to the prom?"

My smile only grew. "Yes."

And that's when he leaned down and kissed me. I mean, he really kissed me. It wasn't the type of kiss that I see Chad give Taylor...all sloppy and hard and wet looking. It wasn't even like the ones I see Ryan and Gabriella share...all light and shy and just really peck-like.

He didn't plunge his tongue down into my throat, either. He didn't kiss me like he had to be the dominating one or anything like that. His kiss was soft, yet still meaningful. Like somehow gentle but powerful. I kissed him back sweetly, just adding on a tiny bit more force. I'd always thought he'd be a good kisser, but nothing like this. I mean, for cheesy quotes of the day, he was amazing at it.

We pulled away a while later, when our lungs were just demanding air. He picked his watch up from the seat where he'd left it before jumping into the water.

"We better start pedaling back." He told me.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Twenty after. We have ten minutes to get back."

Jeeze!

"I can't believe it's already been almost an hour," I said as I forced myself to pull away from him and slide back into my seat no matter how badly I wanted to stay in his arms. It felt like it'd been no more than maybe twenty minutes. It was amazing really, this whole hour had been amazing, for several reasons.

Reason number one: The last time Troy or myself had been in contact with any other person, we really seemed to be less than fond of each other, and look at us now.

Reason number two: This whole thing, if you really think back on it, started over an arguement over a life jacket.

Reason number three: It was truly amazing how you could pack pedaling, arguing, confessions, important questions and answers, explanations, jumping into a completely unsanitary and grody lake, tredding water, and lots of kissing into just one little hour.

And as I smiled at Troy, my prom date, and who knows maybe something more a little later, and he smiled back at me, I gave my heart pendant another gentle squeeze, knowing that this really must be my "dream come true."

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_Holy jeeberz! Sorry for the length. I really didn't think it would get this long heh. Did the ending parts seem rushed at all? I hope not ;P. But who cares anyway as long as it's Troypaylicious ;). Woo. I'd really love to see what you guys thought of this, so gimme yeh feedback in a review? :D :D yeah, yeah? Hehe. Hope you guys liked it. (;_

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


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